


But my life, my lover, my lady is the sea

by comedownwill



Category: La casa de papel | Money Heist (TV)
Genre: Berlermo, Berlin, Berlín | Andrés de Fonollosa - Freeform, F/F, Idiots in Love, La casa de papel - Freeform, M/M, Money Heist, Palermo, Palermo | Martín Berrote - Freeform, angst but guess what, but also angst so, happy ending mf, hopefully i won’t regret this, pirateau, somewhat fluff, this was created at 2 am
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:02:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25289515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/comedownwill/pseuds/comedownwill
Summary: Rumors. People have been telling them to this day, putting together the weirdest stories, just to entertain others and themselves. However, most of the time those rumors turn out to be nothing but contrived.Despite most of them being fake, there was one certain rumor, a legend you could almost say, that had been told by the residents of the small island Réunion near Madagascar, for decades.It was the legend of the pirate named Martín Berrote.Of course, the story went through some changes since everyone understands and passes the telling on in a different way, but it goes somewhat like this:aka: the pirate au literally no one asked for
Relationships: Berlin | Andrés de Fonollosa & Palermo | Martín Berrote
Comments: 23
Kudos: 31





	1. Rumors

Rumors. People have been telling them to this day, putting together the weirdest stories, just to entertain others and themselves. However, most of the time those rumors turn out to be nothing but contrived.  
People come up with them to maybe create chaos, panic, or they simply like to watch others get anxious or excited over something so silly like a totally false story. 

Despite most of them being fake, there was one certain rumor, a legend you could almost say, that had been told by the residents of the small island Réunion near Madagascar, for decades. No one knew whether it was a faked up story, it was supposed to have happened many years ago, anyone who could have proven its truthfulness was already counting worms in their grave.  
It was the legend of the pirate named Martín Berrote, or as some claim, Martín de Fonollosa.  
His story has been passed down by many, many generations.  
Of course, it went through some changes since everyone understands and passes the telling on in a different way, but it goes somewhat like this: 

A long, long time ago, in a small town right next to the sea with a dazzling harbor and an old forest where deers and wolves were at home, a boy who went by the name Martín, was born on a warm summer night.  
He was the oldest son of the family and had his father´s dishwater blonde hair and his mother´s ocean-like eyes. 

Since he was a young lad he had been friends with another boy, Andrés de Fonollosa, who was born only one year before him.  
They had first gotten to know each other on the market which was located in the middle of the town next to the church. It had been a particularly sunny day, so Martín, who had been walking around the area for several hours, was sweating quite a lot thus he decided to pay the refreshing waters of the nearby sea a visit before he would return back to the market and help out his mother. What he didn´t know though was that he was being watched by another boy who proceeded to follow him behind. Martín didn´t notice his presence until they had both reached the shore and he started to talk.

“How do you about this place?”

Martín turned around quickly, expecting to see one of the Avant Gardists since he wasn't supposed to visit this place. But in front of him was a boy, who was only slightly taller than him.

“I go here sometimes to watch the sunrise and escape the city for a while. Also, you have a pretty nice view of the boats that go by at times from here,” Martín admitted after considering his answer for a few seconds.

The other lad nodded in agreement, a small smile creeping on his face. 

“I´m Andrés by the way,” he said.

Martín smiled back hesitantly.

“Martín.”

One hardly ever saw them apart from that day on. They spent almost every day together unless Andrés was called home by his family or he had to attend a trip with his relatives. Even though they spent so much time by each other's sides, they were not at all very similar.

While Martín’s family was hardly able to survive, and not even in the possession of a proper house let alone food or somewhere to work at, Andrés was born in rather wealthy and noble kin who could afford almost anything Andrés asked for.  
They lived on a residence in the center of the city, while Martín had to spend most nights in the a shed with the pigs of the town’s butcher. He knew that he would be able to sleep in one of the guest rooms at Andrés´place for one or two nights if he asked nicely, but he was also aware that neither of the two families liked to have him there, he was just a dirty guttersnipe after all and Andrés’ family was of much more nobility than most people of the town even knew. 

Andrés didn't have to work at all, while the majority of Martín’s day was spent sneaking around the town, trying to find something eatable, which generally ended up in his younger sister´s mouth, and not his own, it wasn't unusual for him to not eat for more than a day.

Martín was lucky to be friends with Andrés, who often helped him since there wasn't much else he could do during the day. Not to say he didn't enjoy spending time with Martín, in point of fact, he did.  
He loved the adrenaline that would pump through his veins when they had to flee from angry tradesmen who Martín would often steal bread from, the smirk on Martín´s face whenever he spotted a new opportunity to get in trouble or even when they were simply wandering through the forest, hunting after small animals. 

One of the few characteristics that they did share however was, they both felt utterly drawn to the sea. Ever since they had laid their eyes on the few boatmen that sometimes passed by on their way to a bigger city and their huge ships and sails, it hadn’t left their minds.  
Almost every day they went to the rack to wave to them, and they would sometimes even try to build their own little boats with what they were given, being sticks and leafs from the forest and pegs they would get from the local blacksmith.  
Those boats would sink in the matter of seconds, but it was enough for them and their fantasy. 

They would stay up many nights, dreaming about what life must be like on the sea. About how the waves would crash against the sides of the boat, making the wood creak under your feet, while the wind blows into the big sails above your head, bringing you wherever you wanted to go. What it must look and feel like to stand right behind the steering wheel, being able to see further than the horizon goes, to wake up in a hammock while feeling the ship being moved back and forth by the ocean and to meet new folks and countries almost every day. 

“Do you think the stars and the moon look the same on the sea?” Andrés asked one night when they were sitting next to the shore, watching the little waves crash against it mildly. Martín, who had been looking at the reflection of the night sky in the water, looked up to him.

“What do you mean?”

“I bet they look different,” Andrés whispered. 

Martín turned his head again, glancing at the stars and the moon slowly going by. 

“I think if they do look different, they might be brighter, you know,” Martín thought out loud, “Because of the city lights.” 

Andrés leaned back on his forearms and followed Martín’s gaze up to the dark sky.

“Maybe you can actually see the different constellations of the stars my father told me about,” he suggested after a moment of silence. 

“You think so?” Martín asked with a quiet chuckle in his voice. 

“I mean, I don´t know for sure, but I like to think about it.”

“Guess, we´ll have to find out ourselves,” Martín replied, averting his gaze from the sky to his friend next to him.

Andrés looked back at him, smiling. 

Overall, they were the definition of best friends.  
But, as we all know, life likes to take away the things that mean the most to us. It was no different with Martín’s and Andrés’ story.


	2. Like a musical

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We’re back at it with pirate! Martín.

Martín deeply inhaled the slightly salty air of the water below him while he was making his way to the ship ahead of him, almost frightened the wooden plank that connected the ship to the mainland, might break under his feet. After all, it took him conscious work to finally get here, he wouldn't want to embarrass himself on his very first day. 

The ship was without a doubt one of a kind. It had assuredly been modified by its owners before. It only had two sails at the front that were hardly even the size of two full-grown men, while it was more common to have three small ones above the bowsprit, the wooden stick which poked out of the foredeck.

The crow’s nest seemed to be a lot bigger as this one could probably fit up to two, maybe three people, Martín guessed vaguely. 

Plenty of people were getting the ship ready, two of them opening the foresail up, another one lugging supplies under the main deck.  
There was hardly a spot that wasn´t filled with life and the laughing of some crew members whilst they were joking around. 

Nothing was standing still, it was like watching a well prepared musical go down at its first, yet also last time for everyone seemed to be so used to the routine and was able to find new joy in the procedure, nevertheless. 

Martín was the only person who wasn´t moving a single muscle, he was hardly even standing on the ship with both of his feet, almost starting to fear he´d be pushed off by one of them if he didn't make himself noticeable any time soon. 

To his benefit, said agitation didn’t turn into reality on account of one of the younger boatmen who had dropped his work to greet Martín, before taking him to the captain’s cabin. After the other man had opened the door and shoved Martín inside, he disappeared under the deck again. 

The old wooden door shut closed behind him again which left the room in a warm luster as the only source of lightning was a bunch of candles placed on the big table at the end of the cabinet. A few pieces of parchment were laying next to them, creating small shadows that danced up and down in the light of the flames. The curtains in front of the windows on the right and the left were let down, keeping the sun out. 

“Ye must be the new one, aye?” the woman sitting on the other side of the table asked, looking up from the papers in front of her. She was dressed in easy clothing, a white shirt, and dark trousers, nothing like the typical pirate Martín or others would hear of or expect to see. 

“That’s correct, my name is-“

“No no, listen, we don’t do the whole names thing on my ship,” she interrupted him immediately, standing up, while putting a hat laying on the table, on top of her orange-ish hair. 

“I’m afraid I don’t understand-“

Yet again, Martín was interrupted. 

“Come here, matey.”

Martín stepped closer to the table, eyeing the pieces of paper, rolling from one side to another as soft waves crashed against the boat’s sides. 

“See this map? Choose a city.” 

He lifted his gaze to the big map in the middle of the dark table.  
It seemed to be an older one, the edges of the paper were already starting to become yellow, and the ink had started to fade. 

Martín wasn’t a man of maps. This was maybe his second time taking a look at one. As a simple guttersnipe, he didn't get many chances to do so.  
However, he was sure he had taken a look at one before. Back in the town, he used to be friends with an older pair that would sometimes even give him some food or shelter for the night if the weather got too bad.  
Martín didn’t know much about them, he had just been glad he wasn’t getting himself ill because of the storm outside. Despite that, he recalled one evening where the older man sat down with him and started to talk about his brother’s job, he was an explorer, a man of the sea, and the queen, been working for her for quite some time. He showed Martín a map that his brother gave him before he vanished on one of his missions. 

The map had seemed almost overwhelming back then, Martín had hardly even seen half of the country he lived in, he could barely get a grasp of how enormous the earth actually was. 

“Is it possible for a man to visit all of these places?” he had asked the older man back then, not being able to take his eyes off the drawing, the replication of earth’s surface. 

The man had only chuckled before taking the paper away from him and putting it back into a drawer. 

“You know son, I don’t know anyone who’s ever seen the whole world, and I don’t think anyone ever will, but if I were to decide who has a chance, I would choose you without a doubt. You’ve got it in you.” 

“Hey, matey, ye still with my?” 

“Palermo,” Martín said eventually. 

“So, ye can read, that’s a good start, Palermo it shall be then..” 

“May I ask why you call one another by city names?” 

“It’s how we keep ourselves safe, that way it’s a lot harder to identify us, and track us down, savvy?” 

Martín nodded quickly while taking a look at the other parchments on the table.

“Alright, so, how about ye go and see my first mate, ye should be able to find him somewhere on the deck.” 

He turned back to the door, and before he was able to go outside, the captain said one last thing. 

“Oh and also, ye should try ´n get rid of those speaking habits, ye don´t wanna be called a landlubber, do ye?” 

—————————————————————

Martín had loved the sailing, he knew he would, everyone who had known him for more than a few months had known before he even entered that ship. 

He loved it, every single part of it, even when it came to the sounds of the sails being opened up and catching the wind in their embraces. 

He loved the way the waves would form smaller waves after crashing against the boat, how the water would part beneath them, and still fade after a few minutes, making it almost impossible to trace them down. Not even the best hunter in Martín’s town would have been able to find them like that. It was free. 

Which did not mean it appealed fully to what he had imagined it to be like. He certainly didn’t expect his whole body to ache like hell and the incredibly uncomfortable hammock he was sleeping in didn’t do the pain much good either. 

Martín sighed while trying to get into a more comfortable position, shifting from one side to another, resting his head on his bag which he had to use as a pillow, at least for now. 

After closing his eyes and trying to get his brain to let him rest for another 10 minutes, he decided to accept his fate and laid back on his back, staring up at the wooden planks above him. 

He was able to make out two people standing on the deck, as the light of the moon shined down right at him, making the outlines of the people rise from the dark. 

Though it must have already been around midnight, Martín was still able to hear distinct chatter coming from one of the bigger cabins on the ship. 

Looking back at the day, he had to admit, despite the increasing pain in his back, it had been a successful day, he learned a lot of new things, like the names of all the sails, or the commonly used pirate language.  
Besides that, he had also found out where they were heading. 

Libertalia. 

He recalled hearing of it in an old book he read when he was still a young lad. The pirate colony was located in Madagascar and led by some guy named James Misson. He was told it was some kind of safe place for pirates, only reliable people were welcome there.  
Though it didn’t seem as though the crew knew much about it, Martín thought, as he remembered a few conversations he had during the day. 

“So, what do ye know about Libertalia?” one of them, a young woman with long dark hair had asked him when he had just gotten done closing up one of the front sails. 

“Well, I know that it’s somewhere around Africa, and lots of pirates go there to seek help or shelter. An old friend of mine even went as far as to describe it as ’paradise for pirates’,” he had replied, sitting down next to her. 

“That’s what your books told ye?” 

“Where I’m from, we don’t have many other ways to learn of those kinds of things.” 

She let out a cold chuckle, before turning to him. 

“Listen, matey, no one knows what the hell is going on over there in Libertalia, the founder, that Misson guy, people have stopped trusting him. I heard that Avery and Tew are even planning to go on the run together with all the gold there is on that island.” 

Martín nodded, trying to figure out whether that Avery and Tew were of enough importance to remember a face or a story about them.

“Oh, and also,” she continued “, ye didn’t hear this from my, but besides the capt’n, no one knows why we’re heading there, we don’t need any type of shelter or help, especially not from those landlubbers that dare to call themselves ‘pirates’ while hiding in that town like goddamn rats.” 

“What are you trying to tell me by that?”

“Nothin’ really, matey. Just remember to not ask questions, ye won’t get any good answers.” 

Now that Martín thought about it again, and kept repeating Avery’s and Tew’s names in his mind, he was more and more sure that he had never heard of those guys before. It wouldn’t matter when they’d be on Libertalia anyway, Martín was quite certain they would stay there for maybe one night or two before continuing to travel. 

—————————————————————

The next morning, Martín woke up with the biggest pain he had ever felt. He had fallen out of his hammock one or two times throughout the night which only made his backache even more. 

He groaned, before getting out of his hammock, deciding to call it a day for now, as he could already see the sun rising behind the horizon. 

Carefully, as to not wake the others, he stepped out of the cabinet, onto the deck, admiring the few minutes of silence he was gonna get while watching the sunrise, before the rest of the crew would wake up as well.

Leaning against the mainmast, ignoring his tummy’s growling since the last meal he had was last afternoon, he started to go through everything he had learned of the day before. That was what he usually did to overcome unnecessary excitement for the day. They were only gonna stop by a small city, nothing special about that.

Yet, Martín could not wait to get there, and was tempted to sail the ship there all by himself since the others didn’t seem to stand up as early as him, just to get there a little sooner. 

It would be the first time in 6 years that he would ever see another town than the one he had to live in before. Though, you couldn’t call that rathole a city if someone had asked him. 

But the most important part maybe, it would be the first time in his life that he would walk around a town without having to constantly look behind himself to make sure he wasn’t being followed by some guy he had robbed the other day, he wouldn’t have to hide in dark allies or consider whether he should eat the bread he found that had already gone bad.  
He and the crew would be free to walk around until the captain would be done with whatever she had to do on that island. 

A small smile crept onto his face at the thought of that. 

Luckily enough, he had already been able to make a few friends on his first day, so he wouldn’t have to walk around the town all by himself like he used to do.

Well, not quite always.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m so sorry for taking over a whole ass month to publish the second chapter shsjsjsjsksk. I put my whole soul into this, and the whole story also went through many many changes.  
> Anyway, thank you so much for reading!! I’m always happy to hear your thoughts on it!!

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so so much for reading!! i’m always happy to read what you think about it!! you can also find me on twitter (@palermosfridge).


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